TMDB Movie Recommender App

This is a movie recommendation app built using Python and Kivy, leveraging the TMDB API. It allows users to browse popular movies and search for specific titles, displaying detailed information and images.

Features

• Browse Popular Movies:

  • Loads and displays popular movies from the TMDB database across multiple pages.
  • Presents movies with their posters, titles, and overview.

• Search Functionality:

  • Enables users to search for movies by their titles.
  • Provides search results with movie posters and details.
  • Shows an error when no movies are found.

• Movie Details:

  • Displays detailed information about a selected movie, including title, overview, and release date.
  • Includes a large poster image for the movie.

• User Interface:

  • Responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes and orientations, as well as a full screen mode.
  • Uses a clean and intuitive layout for easy navigation.
  • Uses Kivy for a fluid and visually appealing user interface.
  • Custom Clear Button to clear the search query
  • Custom search bar using a horizontal box layout and custom text input and custom clear button
  • All errors are displayed on the screen, rather than the console.

• Error Handling:

  • Handles errors with the TMDB API.
  • Provides error messages to users if there is an issue with loading data or connection.

• Background Functionality:

  • Uses logging to track and save program events.
  • Uses .env file to securely store API key
  • Uses multi-threading with Kivy clock to prevent freezing the UI on API calls.

• No Virtual Keyboard:

  • Has a custom text input where the virtual keyboard is disabled to prevent visual bugs.

How to Use

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone [repository URL]
   cd [project directory]

2. Set Up Environment Variables:
   • Create a .env file in the project's root directory.
   • Add your TMDB API key to the .env file:

     TMDB_API_KEY=YOUR_TMDB_API_KEY

   • Remember to install the python-dotenv module by using the following command:

      pip install python-dotenv

3. Install Dependencies:

   pip install tmdbv3api kivy python-dotenv requests

4. Run the App:

   python main.py

• Remember to rename the python file from the one provided above from main to the file you have.

5. Using the App:
   • Use the text input at the top of the page to search for a movie.
   • Click on any of the movie posters to see a more in depth overview of the movie.
   • Click the "back" button to return to the previous page.

Technologies Used

• Python: Programming language.
• Kivy: For creating the cross platform UI.
• tmdbv3api: TMDB API library for accessing movie data.
• requests: The requests module to make HTTP requests
• python-dotenv: To securely manage API key and other environment variables
• logging To log issues and events that happen within the program.

Challenges Faced

• Asynchronous API Calls: Managing API calls without freezing the user interface.
• Error Handling: Implementing robust error handling for TMDB API failures.
• Responsive Layout: Designing a user interface that scales and adapts across different screen sizes and resolutions.
• Correctly handling user input: Managing text inputs without breaking other user input functionality
• Preventing duplicate movie listings Ensuring all movie listings are unique
• Data Management: Efficiently caching movie data and posters.

Future Improvements

• Recommendation System: Implement a more robust movie recommendation system based on user preferences.
• Improved Search: Enhanced search with genre, actor, and director filters.
• User Authentication: Add login and user accounts for saving favorites.
• Detail Views: Improve detailed views with user reviews, ratings, and trailers.
• Offline Capability: Enable offline access to cached movie data and images.
• More Loading States: Improve feedback for the user on what state the application is in.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.